Robam, Waiting for AI to "Serve the Meal"

Some time ago, Robam Appliance released its financial report for 2025. Based on this report, industry observers reached a conclusion: The painful period for Robam Appliance to shift from real - estate - driven growth to endogenous growth has not ended yet.

In 2023, Robam Appliance set the strategic goal for 2023 - 2025 as "Re - creating a new Robam Appliance in three years."

Previously, Robam Appliance's revenue in 2022 was 10.272 billion yuan. Now, in 2025, its revenue has dropped to 10.116 billion yuan, a year - on - year decline of 9.78% compared to 2024.

After three years, instead of re - creating a new Robam Appliance, the company has shrunk.

 "Re - creating a new Robam Appliance in three years"

Ren Fujia, the second - generation successor of Robam Appliance, is the only son of Ren Jianhua, the founder of Robam Appliance. He took over as the general manager from his father in 2013 at the age of 30.

In 2023, at the new three - year strategy press conference of Robam Appliance, Ren Fujia proposed: "By 2025, re - create a new Robam Appliance."

The background for putting forward this slogan was not optimistic.

Robam Appliance was established in 1979. Later, it took advantage of the engineering channel dividends during the golden decade of the real - estate industry and developed rapidly, becoming a giant in the kitchen appliance industry.

Statistics show that the proportion of the engineering channel, which Robam Appliance has long relied on, reached a maximum of 54.54%.

Range hoods, gas stoves, and disinfection cabinets have become the three - piece set for Robam Appliance to enter into cooperation with the real - estate industry. Top 100 real - estate enterprises such as Evergrande, Country Garden, and Vanke are all Robam Appliance's cooperation partners.

From 2009 to 2017, Robam Appliance's revenue and net profit both maintained double - digit growth, with the average growth rate of net profit exceeding 40%.

In 2021, the real - estate industry entered a downward cycle, resulting in a sharp reduction in Robam Appliance's engineering orders. In 2022 and 2023, the revenue growth rate of Robam Appliance slipped to single - digits. The stock price of Robam Appliance also started to decline after reaching a high point in July 2021.

The development of the second growth curve was also frustrated.

In 2015, Robam Appliance launched dishwashers more suitable for Chinese kitchens; in 2018, following the steaming and baking consumption wave, it launched steam - baking all - in - one machines; in 2022, it entered the integrated stove market and released its first ROKI digital kitchen appliance.

However, after years of investment in new businesses such as integrated stoves, dishwashers, and steam ovens, their combined proportion was less than 15% by 2023 and they have not yet formed an effective replacement.

At that time, AI and digitalization became important narratives in the home appliance industry. Ren Fujia bet the transformation focus on AI and smart hardware, trying to create a new growth curve. This was also the starting point of "Re - creating a new Robam Appliance."

In June 2024, Robam Appliance released the industry's first AI cooking large - scale model, "Shishen". The official introduction said that "Shishen" can not only recommend recipes and manage healthy diets, but also achieve automated cooking by controlling hardware such as range hoods, stoves, and steam ovens in a coordinated manner.

The company also launched the ROKI digital kitchen appliance "Creator i1", which is said to be equipped with the world's first AI cooking assistant, "Mr. ROKI", capable of connecting kitchen equipment and achieving intelligent collaborative work. This move is considered an important attempt by Robam Appliance to reconstruct traditional kitchen appliances.

Robam Appliance after three years

Let's first talk about the sales channels of Robam Appliance that are most affected by the real - estate industry.

Robam Appliance's previous main sales channels mainly included offline agents, online e - commerce, and engineering hard - decoration. In recent years, the national real - estate market has been in continuous adjustment, and Robam Appliance's engineering hard - decoration business is still in "inertial decline".

Meanwhile, the share of the online channel is also shrinking. In 2024, the online market shares of Robam Appliance's range hood and gas stove combo packages, kitchen appliance packages, and range hoods were 26.89%, 25.46%, and 21.41% respectively. By 2025, the market shares dropped to 18.82%, 17.57%, and 19.57% respectively.

Behind these data lies the shock of Robam Appliance's core business. In 2025, range hoods contributed 4.985 billion yuan in revenue, accounting for 49.28% of the total revenue, a year - on - year decline of 8.62%; gas stoves generated 2.506 billion yuan in revenue, accounting for 24.77%, a year - on - year decrease of 9.76%. The two major categories of range hoods and gas stoves accounted for more than 74%, but their revenues both declined. Industry insiders commented that Robam Appliance's core business is contracting.

There has been new progress in offline agents. In 2025, Robam Appliance's full - year consignment revenue was 3.83 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 8.07%. This is the only core channel with positive growth. The growth momentum mainly comes from the expansion into the sinking market through collaborative store - opening with the home - improvement and building - materials industries.

Judging from the specific performance, the business once regarded as the second growth curve has not lived up to expectations.

In 2025, Robam Appliance's dishwasher revenue was 680 million yuan, a year - on - year decline of 14.1%; the integrated stove revenue was 139 million yuan, a year - on - year plunge of 57.56%; the revenue of steamers and ovens was almost halved; the revenue of disinfection cabinets declined by more than 30% year - on - year.

In the field of AI, Robam Appliance has paid special attention in recent years and has indeed achieved some growth.

In 2025, the annual sales of Robam Appliance's "AI digital kitchen appliances" reached 2.35 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 36%, accounting for 23% of the total revenue.

Although it has not yet developed into the core revenue, it has shown some progress.

Industry observers pointed out that "Ren Fujia's attempt in AI still has positive significance. Although the current returns are not ideal, without AI technology accumulation, the company will be in a dangerous situation if it wants to build competitiveness in the next decade."

In 2026, Robam Appliance continued to increase its investment in AI. In March this year, Robam Appliance officially released the world's first AI cooking glasses that can cook and the first AI seasoning robot that can accurately dispense ingredients according to recipes, forming an "intelligent agent collaborative network" together with Shishen and AI digital kitchen appliances.

Among them, the large - scale model acts as the "brain" to understand cooking intentions, AI digital kitchen appliances act as the "limbs" to execute operations such as controlling the heat and air volume, and AI glasses provide real - time visual guidance to make every detail of the cooking process controllable.

AI has become an increasingly important trump card in the kitchen appliance market. Many kitchen appliance enterprises, including Robam Appliance, have already started to make arrangements.

Vatti has launched products such as the ‌AI Health Kitchen Butler‌ and the ‌Hidden Nested Series‌, integrating functions such as AI adaptive smoke control and AI safety monitoring, and evolving towards a system - level smart kitchen.

Fotile, which launched a kitchen robot some time ago, has also carried out systematic exploration for eight years. In 2018, Fotile established Hangzhou Fotile Smart Technology Co., Ltd. to layout the development of intelligent robots.

In the end, the competition among kitchen appliance enterprises in AI will ultimately return to the competition in technology. Although many results are not yet obvious, AI has become an indispensable card. Especially for a company like Robam Appliance, which pins its second - stage entrepreneurship on AI, AI is a battle that it can only win.

Conclusion

In 2026, Robam Appliance is facing a difficult situation. In the first quarter of this year, Robam Appliance's revenue was 1.963 billion yuan, a year - on - year decline of 5.46%; the net profit was 307 million yuan, a year - on - year decline of 9.82%. The net cash flow from operating activities decreased from - 187 million yuan in the same period last year to - 4